Man arrested in fatal crash with police car was out on bail

Posted: Sunday, July 15, 2001

ANCHORAGE (AP) -- A 30-year-old man accused of providing alcohol to a group of teens involved in a fatal accident involving a police officer was out on bail at the time, awaiting assignment to a prison to serve time on a recent federal conviction.

Ronald Frank was charged Friday with four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and five counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor. The charges are slightly different than announced by police Thursday after Frank's arrest.

According to the documents, a 15-year-old girl was baby-sitting at a trailer and decided to have a party. Several friends came over initially. When the girl saw Frank, she asked him to pick up some more friends and buy alcohol for them.

Frank bought liquor for the teens three times Sunday night, the charges state. Police obtained security video from the liquor outlet and identified Frank on the video. When shown the videos, police said, Frank admitted buying the alcohol for minors.

Among those attending the party was 19-year-old Robert Esper. Esper left the party with six others and drove erratically around the city before crashing head-on into Anchorage officer Justin T. Wollam's patrol car at about 4 a.m. Monday, killing the officer, himself, and two of his three passengers, and injuring a third passenger.

A 13-year-old girl who attended the party told police Esper appeared intoxicated when he left.

Frank was recently convicted of theft of government property in U.S. District Court and sentenced to five months in prison, according to court documents. He was out on bail awaiting assignment to a prison for the federal offense.